• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Sunny Side Up Nutrition

A cooking, nutrition and family feeding blog to simplify your life

  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Resources
  • Work With Us
  • Shop
  • Nav Social Menu

Elizabeth Davenport

7 Tips for When Your Teen Says They’re Going Vegetarian

February 25, 2021 By Elizabeth Davenport Leave a Comment

What’s the concern with teens going vegetarian or vegan?

When a teen wants to go vegetarian or vegan, that can be a red flag. Anytime a teen wants to make a change in they way they’re eating, it’s a signal for us parents to slow down and get curious. And though being vegetarian doesn’t mean someone has an eating disorder, we do know that those with eating disorders were more likely to report having been vegetarian or vegan.

What’s a flexitarian?

About 10 years ago, my now 16 year old declared she wanted to be a vegetarian who ate hamburgers, bacon, ham and sausage. Naturally, Chad and I found Caroline’s declaration both hilarious and smart! Our amazing child was telling us she didn’t want to eat foods she didn’t like (she’d never loved chicken or beef unless it was a hamburger). And that she wanted to continue eating foods she loved. Without knowing the term for it, she declared herself a flexitarian which is how I advise parents and their tweens and teens to think about it today.

An important note: my use of the term flexitarian is more broad than the Merriam-Webster definition: “one whose normally meatless diet occasionally includes meat or fish.” I define flexitarian as someone who’s interested in eating more vegetarian and vegan meals while continuing to eat the foods they love.

7 Tips for when your teen says they’re going vegetarian or vegan:

  1. Be curious if your teen expresses interest in changing the way they eat. There’s no denying plant based diets are good for our bodies and our planet. However, adolescents are prone to all or nothing thinking and that can lead to rigid behaviors around food. Ask some questions: Are they worried about their weight? Are they worried about health? These reasons are red-flags. We know that teens who diet are at increased risk of developing an eating disorder. If they answer yes to either of these, schedule to meet with an experienced, weight inclusive, non-diet registered dietitian for guidance. As we know, there’s so much pressure on people of all ages from diet-culture. What messages are they getting at school, from coaches, from friends and family? Again, be curious about why they want to stop eating meat, chicken, fish, dairy, eggs? What are they reading? What are they hearing in school? Who do they follow on social media?
  2. Is it their love of the environment or animals or both? Encourage them to find some non-food ways to be more environmentally conscious and engage in social justice issues. 
  3. Avoid praising or criticizing your teen who wants to go vegetarian or vegan. Eating a certain way is neither good nor bad. For instance, a person who chooses to be vegetarian or vegan or flexitarian or “to eat clean” or eat more whole foods is not better in anyway than a person who eats meat, pork, chicken and fish in their diet.
  4. Offer to explore meal ideas together and then weave those meals into your current dinner rotation. Explore quick and easy ideas for vegetarian or vegan lunches they can easily make themselves. See below for links to some recipes and cookbooks.
  5. Avoid cooking only meals you think your teen will eat. Because they’re still growing, it can be hard to meet their needs if they cut out foods they previously ate. (Yes, even after adolescents get their period, they still grow)! Make that pulled pork, or roast chicken or stir-fried beef and veggies. And sometimes make a vegetarian side – like baked beans to go with the pulled pork, or white beans and farro to go with the chicken. Serve the stir-fried beef and veggies over rice with a bowl of edamame. Your teen can eat the veggies, rice and edamame.
  6. Avoid allowing your teen to make themselves different meals from what the rest of the family is eating. Assure them you’ll make meals that will have enough to fill them up. Or, have them make a side like a bean dish to go with the meal. Yes, we want teens to be helping with some of the meal prep at times and making some of their own meals. However, teens have a lot going on and still need us to provide much of the structure of planning and preparing most meals. At times, they seem like adults and at times like toddlers. Teens still need us to provide some structure around meals.
  7. Encourage them to think of themselves as flexitarian. We know teens think rigidly at times which can leave them feeling like they MUST eat only X or Y. Being flexitarian allows them to feel free to eat a burger when that’s what sounds good to them. Or a grilled cheese or a bowl of ice cream or the bacon that smells SO good or the steamed pork buns they’ve always loved. I’ll say it again: teens are still growing and it can be hard to meet their needs if they cut out foods they previously ate and enjoyed. 

Vegetarian recipes and a few cookbooks

Check out these simple vegetarian recipes on our site:
  • Zucchini Fritters
  • Easy Weeknight Tofu Veggie Stir Fry
  • A 15 Minute Recipe for Black Beans: 7 Different Ways
  • Anna’s Easy Black Beans and Rice
  • 2 Simple Vegetarian Meal Ideas in the post
  • Easy Baked Beans
  • Crisp Veggie Salad
Links to some of my favorite cookbooks and blogs that are either completely vegetarian or include some simple and tasty vegetarian recipes.
  • Dinner by Melissa Clark
  • Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi
  • Simple by Yotam Ottolenghi
  • How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman
  • The New Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison
  • World Vegetarian Cooking by Madhur Jaffrey
  • SmittenKitchen.com

What’s your favorite vegetarian or vegan recipe? Leave a reply below!

Filed Under: Family Feeding

Spiced Pumpkin Bread – One More Pumpkin Bread Recipe Can’t Hurt!

November 6, 2020 By Elizabeth Davenport Leave a Comment

Why would I share a pumpkin bread recipe when there are already millions out there? I’ve made many of those recipes and this one from The Foster’s Market Cookbook that I’ve adapted over the years is my favorite. One more pumpkin bread recipe can’t hurt! Especially THIS recipe for 2 loaves of delicious, full-of-flavor, moist pumpkin bread!

How are you taking care of yourself this week?

How are you doing this week? It’s been a stressful week that’s for sure! Diving into activities that I love helps manage stress.

Baking and cooking are activities that have always helped me cope. I can lose myself in them completely. As you might guess, I’ve been baking and cooking a lot this week! One thing I’ve baked is pumpkin bread. The weather is turning chilly (sometimes) here in the DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia) and the leaves are turning which means it’s time to bake pumpkin bread. The leaves are also turning near Lancaster, PA where I took this photo a few weeks ago during a walk with my in-laws.

Some quick breads are too sweet for me, or too dry, or not flavorful enough. This recipe takes care of all these issues and what you get is a not-too-sweet, moist, flavorful loaf (actually 2 loaves) of pumpkin bread!

This bread tastes even better the second day and the third, if there’s any left! I often freeze one of the two loaves. I like to make this in small loaf pans during the holidays and give friends four little loaves. 

This recipe for Spiced Pumpkin Bread makes 2 loaves.

Breakfast and snack ideas

I love having pumpkin bread for breakfast or a snack. A simple slice of this pumpkin bread is satisfying on its own. That said, here are a few more ways to serve this delicious pumpkin bread:

  • Toasted and topped with salted butter and a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar
  • Alongside a mug of hot apple cider
  • Toasted and topped with almond butter (or sunflower butter) and a drizzle of maple syrup
  • Served with a side of maple yogurt and toasted pecans
  • Topped with a nut butter (or sunflower butter) and thinly sliced apples
  • Leftover pumpkin bread (or any quick bread) works well in bread pudding

Speaking of sweets – what we say matters.

Did you have a chance to read Anna’s latest post? She writes about the importance of language around food, in particular sweets at Halloween. But, the advice in her post is relevant all year. Especially as we go into the holiday season and there tends to be more sweets around. Click here to read more on how to talk about sweets.

Posts from our November 2018 and 2019 archives

  • Three Steps to Keep Your Holidays Free From Diet Culture
  • Corn Pudding: An Easy Side for Thanksgiving (or Any Day!)
  • Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie
  • Thanksgiving Traditions and A Dessert
  • Your Care Instructions
  • Gift Ideas: Nutrition and Body Books for Kids and Parents
  • Keep It Simple: 3 Quick and Easy Meals
  • Easy Convenient Fruit and Veggie Sides
Print

Spiced Pumpkin Bread-One More Pumpkin Bread Recipe Can’t Hurt!

A full-of-flavor, moist pumpkin bread. The recipes makes 2 loaves so you can share one or stash it in the freezer for next week. 

Adapted from Spiced Pumpkin Bread from The Foster’s Market Cookbook by Sara Foster

  • Author: Elizabeth Davenport

Ingredients

Scale

3 ½ cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon + ½ teaspoon cinnamon

1 Tablespoon + ½ teaspoon nutmeg

Pinch of ground cloves

2 ¼ cup granulated sugar

4 large eggs

1 cup canola oil

One 15-ounce can pumpkin puree

½ cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 F.
  • Butter and flour two 9 x 3 inch loaf pans (or you can spray them with Pam)
  • Into a medium mixing bowl, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. Whisk to combine.
  • Put the canola oil, sugar and eggs in a large mixing bowl. Whisk until well combined.
  • Add the water, pumpkin and vanilla to the oil, sugar and egg mixture. Whisk to combine.
  • Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir to combine. Don’t over mix the batter.
  • Pour the batter evenly into the prepared loaf pans. Bake for 50-60 minutes. Check for doneness at the 50 minute mark by inserting a toothpick into the top of the loaf. If it comes out clean, the bread is done baking. 
  • Remove the bread from the oven and place on cooling racks. Let cool for 10-15 minutes before turning the loaves out of the pans.

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @sunnysideupnutritionists on Instagram

Filed Under: Breakfast, Recipes, Snacks

Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Welcome to Sunny Side Up Nutrition! 

• Are you looking for sound, practical nutrition and cooking information?

• Do you want to opt out of diet culture and the hype around food?

• Do you want to be empowered to foster healthy relationships with food in your home?

If so, then you’ve come to the right place!

Subscribe To Our Mailing List




Easy Black Beans – A 15 Minute Recipe: & Different Ways

https://youtu.be/NOKxZZi9SbQ

Recent Posts

  • 5 Tips to Nurture Body Confidence & Trust in Teens
  • 7 Tips for When Your Teen Says They’re Going Vegetarian
  • Let’s Talk About Sugar
  • Garlic Shrimp with Feta – A New “Go-To” Meal
  • Gift Guide: 7 Favorite Food-Related Gifts

Archives

Footer

  • terms of service
  • privacy policy

Copyright © 2021 · site by m8.design